A Tale Of Friendship And Loneliness

Sarah

Sarah was 26 , a lawyer by profession. She had soft blue eyes which were to die for. She had long black hair which curled at the end adding to her beauty. She was average height and on the healthier side. She checked the reply from Atharv, sighed and kept the phone in her bag. She had walked a long distance to get a signal from the place she had been camping. 

Sarah was progressing well in her profession but she was not happy. Her passion was wildlife photography. She had been trying to get an internship at National Geographic Channel from her college days.  Finally after 3 years of relentless trying, she had gotten through. She was asked to give her consent within a week. She did not have to give it much thought about her decision, she knew very well from the beginning that she would jump at the opportunity any time and would not mind dropping anything for it. Her parents were okay with her decision. They were fine as long as their daughter was happy. One thing which nagged her was that she had not told about this to her boyfriend Atharv. She was not happy with him and was thinking of calling it off for a while. In the beginning , everything seemed great, yes they sure had great moments and connected amazingly.  But after that lovely phase things had started going downhill. Atharv was becoming really selfish , manipulative and taking her for granted. Sarah believed in dreaming big. Let alone support her he had started to discourage that character of hers. He was either becoming that or she was just getting to know him really well.  Her morale, self confidence  were declining day by day ,her perspective towards life had started to become negative. He had managed to make her distant from her friends as well. He was getting to her core strength in all way possible. It was breaking her. She knew that if she did not end it, it would ruin her life completely. She mustered all the courage and called it off personally. The reaction she got from Atharv was not what she had expected. 

Of course she felt bad about calling it off, but she had realized that they were just not meant to be. Atharv had to accept it, she thought to herself.

Sarah soon got busy with the formalities of joining the Channel along with winding up her work in her workplace.  It was a month or so when she got a call from the 'common friend' saying Atharv needed help as he was drunk and creating a ruckus at a pub. 

She left all the work she had to help Atharv out. With a help from another person, she managed to get Atharv in the cab. He was abusing her , his man ego was hurt from the rejection. She ignored all of it. The cab driver helped her in getting him till the door of his apartment. Sarah thanked him for his help and the driver left. Atharv used to keep his apartment keys under the doormat next to a pot. She took out the keys, unlocked the door. It was  a hard task to support a man twice her size. She had to pull him across the floor. After what seemed like a grueling task in a reality show she managed to put him on the bed. She left a yellow post-it note on his refrigerator which said ,

"Take care Atharv, I will be catching a plane tomorrow morning to join the expedition. I will see you when I return. Be safe".

Returning to a place which was once close to your heart, but not anymore ,brought a flood of memories - both good and bad which were overwhelming. She rushed out of the door, all the way back to her house she was fighting the memories in her head. 

She had dated a couple of guys before Atharv, but nothing was as dramatic as this one. She was miserable in the end. She used to ask herself numerous times , "Why did I have to meet him?".

She had a happy life. Her life had revolved around her parents, best friends and her career. 

Sarah's parents were like her best friends. They were loving, caring, understanding and supportive. Sarah's father was a successful lawyer and mother a home-maker. She was the only daughter which made her an apple of her parents' eyes. She was provided with the best schooling in the town. At school she made some friends who turned out to be her lifetime friends. They were Diya, Vachana, Amita and Nritya. 

After schooling, all of them chose different career paths. Diya was a primary school teacher at a renowned international school, Vachana was continuing the business of her family, Amita was a pyschiatrist and Nritya was a professional Kathak dancer. All of them were equally talented in their fields and had a name of their own. Their differences in career or their various approach towards life never acted as a hurdle to their ever flourishing friendship. Sure they had their ups and downs, but nothing could break their inner bond. There were times when they would get so busy in their lives that they would go on for weeks without talking to each other. Life does that to you. Everybody's journey is thier own. But the minute they caught up with each other nothing seemed to distance them.

Sarah was now working in Brazil. She had been sending ' Are you ok ?' texts to Atharv after the incident at the pub. Every morning she had to walk a mile to get the signal. She was not in touch with her friends. She had met two Indians who also worked on the same assignment as hers. One was Mr. Sharma who was around the age of 45 and the other was Mr. Vikas who was around 50. Their company kept her close to India. They used to guide her with her assignment. Looking at her passion, desire to make a mark in the world  and the dedication with which she worked made her adorable . She was also the youngest intern which made them protective about her. Sarah was not leading a luxurious life out there, she was camping in a jungle for most of the time. It was a bare minimum life when it came to materialistic pleasures. Since she loved doing what she was doing ,the comfort did not matter to her. 

She had explored and covered the outer area of the Amazon forest extensively.   Her work was being appreciated by the Nat Geo team. She had heard the reviews of her work from a colleague who had gone to the country and come back to join her. The episodes which were already out had garnered attention of the world. Her work was being appreciated back in India. Apparently some newspapers had even carried few articles on her being the youngest woman wildlife explorer of India associated with Nat Geo Channel.

The assignment was soon coming to an end. Sarah was supposed to return to India next month. She was looking forward to being home with her parents, meet her friends, share the stories. She had so much to tell them!! 

The morning on which Atharv had hurriedly left for office was the day when the newspapers carried articles on Sarah. As he was late he did not get to read the paper. Atharv was late to office by 15 minutes. He checked his mails, there was not much work as it was holiday season, Christmas was soon approaching. It was vacation time all over the world. He was browsing the internet when a photo caught his eye on the news page. It was Sarah's!... " The soft, beautiful face.. but a cold person who had broken his heart."

 When he was done reading the article, he banged his fist onto the table. The glass on his table fell on the floor and shattered into pieces. The sound caught the attention of his colleagues. He immediately regained his composure and pretended to be normal. He was seething from anger and jealousy  on the inside.